Jay Taft: Jay Cutler was ready to give up on Mike Martz but didn't

Jay Cutler didn’t drop an F-bomb on Mike Martz on Sunday night like many believe. But after listening to him closely before and after the past two games, it’s easy to believe that he wanted to.

Jay Taft

Jay Cutler didn’t drop an F-bomb on Mike Martz on Sunday night like many believe. But after listening to him closely before and after the past two games, it’s easy to believe that he wanted to.

After watching (over and over again) the now popular YouTube video of the Bears quarterback shouting an obscenity to “somebody” shortly after calling a third-down play in the huddle, I am not in the group of followers who wants to believe he was sending his offensive coordinator an on-field message.

But Cutler has held back on his praise for Martz the past couple weeks, and he appeared to be getting close to losing the love, and respect, that he often showed for his leader. He explained last week that he was hoping for some more short drop-back pass plays, and a few more calls that would allow him to get rid of the ball quicker. After being sacked 18 times in the first five games, who could blame him?

Martz seemed open to the idea late last week.

“He’s right. We’re working on it. He’s absolutely right. We’ve talked about it as a staff, and we’ve addressed this issue,” Martz said. “We’ve got to make sure that we’re giving him a chance with some of those quicker throws and things. There’s no question about that.”

He did that on Sunday night during the Bears’ 39-10 win over the Vikings. Cutler was sacked once and hit one other time, both season-lows, and Chicago was able to get to 3-3 by keeping tight ends and backs in to block, and by making Cutler’s life a whole lot easier in the play-calling category.

“We just change gears and go in that direction,” Martz had said. “It’s not hard.”

But when given the perfect opportunity to praise Martz’s ability to reel it in and play to his talent on Sunday, Cutler stood at the postgame podium, smiled for a moment, then decided to throw a bone to everybody but Martz.

“There’s a lot of people involved in this. Mike Tice, me, Shane Day, tight end coach Debo (Mike DeBord), everyone has kind of a say in this, and we are all trying to do the right thing, and we are all trying to manage what we can and can’t do on the football field,” Cutler said, all in one breath.

He then tossed out a little dig Martz’s way. “When we are smart about it and do the things we did tonight, we are more than likely going to be successful.”

Sounded like Cutler was sending an off-field message to Martz just before he strolled away from the interview room. It was around this time of the season last year when Martz went with an unMartzlike style of offense after the bye week. The Bears went with a balanced offense, and along with a great defense, they rode it all the way to the NFC championship game.

But this on-again, off-again relationship between Cutler and Martz was souring again through the first month of this season. Cutler has been as sharp as he’s ever been the past two games, however, and it may be about time for the two to Bear hug, make up and get this offense back on track.

Last week was a good start. The next step could come overseas in London in the form of another dominating performance against the Bucs.